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Murder Fir Christmas by Joyce and Jim Lavene

Leave it to the Lavenes to catch your attention from the very beginning. Bonnie Tuttle reluctantly returns to her hometown of Christmas Tree Valley after being gone ten years. Strange things start occurring immediately. While driving into Sweet Pepper, she is stopped by an older Cherokee man standing in the road who says he’s been expecting her. What an unusual welcome, right? Well, it doesn’t let up from that point as Bonnie moves home to take care of her ailing mom and assumes the job as Sweet Pepper’s new Wild Life Agent.

No time is wasted on meeting the heads of the town as she is involved in helping to solve the mystery of a fire set at Sweet Pepper Lake where two men are found shot dead. After rescuing an injured wolf pup, Matthew Brown Elk, a Cherokee resident of Christmas Tree Valley, offers to help her in healing it. A bond not only starts to form between her and the wolf pup, but also between her and Matthew. As more visions come to her via the strange Cherokee man, she soon learns why she has always been able to communicate with animals so well.

I love the different elements in this book from the visions, to a woman’s coming home to face her past and accepting her new future. It’s beautifully written as a story of hope and purpose. We all wonder through life asking why we are here. Bonnie was doing the same for so long and left her childhood home looking for the answers. Sometimes the answer was right in front of us.

I hope the story of Bonnie Tuttle will continue in a future book because I really loved reading about her and all she had gone though. Murder Fir Christmas was full of dynamic, strong and one of a kind characters. What a great book for the holidays!